Content providers, such as vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators/managers, media providers and other entities and organizations, have a need to distribute content items to vehicles. For example, a vehicle manufacturer may desire to update software for one or more subsystems (e.g., engine control, media center, navigation system) in a particular model of car. Historically, such an update was only possible via a manual update performed by a technician in a service center.
Vehicles increasingly include wireless communication devices that enable communication via the cellular phone network, Bluetooth, or the like. These additional communication mechanisms allow content providers to distribute content items “over the air,” while vehicles are in the field, without requiring the physical presence or manual intervention of a technician, operator, owner or other party.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a prior art approach to the over the air distribution of content items to vehicles using a cellular wireless network. In FIG. 1A, a carrier 110 operates a cellular network, which is used by a content provider 112 transmit content item A to each of multiple cars 101a-101e. To transmit the content item to, for example, car 101a, the content provider 112 connects (via the carrier 110) to a cellular communication device (not shown) the car 101a, and then transmits the content item via the established connection. This process is repeated for each and every car 101a-101e. In this example, the content provider 112 transmits content item A five times in all, once to each car 101a-101e. 
FIG. 1B is a sequence diagram that illustrates the prior art content distribution process. In FIG. 1B, the carrier 110 communicates with each of multiple communication devices 102a-102c. The communication devices 102a-102c may be cellular communication devices that are each installed in a corresponding vehicle. The carrier transmits the entire content item to each of the devices 102a-102c via a dedicated connection. As carrier charges are typically based on the amount of data transmitted, the distribution cost of one content item is proportional to the number of destination devices (vehicles).